From the Outside
by Pockets Full of Sunshine
Summary: He was wrong though. She was the one with the challenge. And she lost. Read and review please.


This was a request. If you want me to write something, private message me with what you want me to do. I'll say yes to _almost _anything. And seriously, give me something happy next time. This is written in the same format as my last two. Oh, and Sena's genderswitched in this....though it isn't told in his--her--point of view. Heh. Yeah, also part of the request. Please read anyway!

I don't own Eyeshield 21.

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"From the Outside"

When the Christmas Bowl came around, Karin hadn't been expecting a team like the Devil Bats as the opponents. She was expected the Dinosaurs, the Nagas, or the White Knights. Some team made of these super humans that the Kanto tournament was so famous for having. Everything about the Deimon team was wrong. It's players were too small, too many errors they made, too much of an explosive win. She highly doubted any other team would've beaten them in such a way. It was a blow to her pride really, but she just kept on smiling and didn't let it get to her. After all, Yamato and Taka were barely effected by it at all. Yamato seemed like he almost didn't care in the slightest, and all he could take about for the next three days was little running back, Sena, or Eyeshield as he referred to her as most of the time.

So Karin didn't let it get to her.

***

Every time Yamato was around, Karin blushed. It was a curse, she realized, it was just one big curse. She saw him everyday, usually from dawn until nighttime, sometimes more. She thought that she would be used to it, but she wasn't. If he caught off guard with one of his smiles and eye contact, she would blush. Of course she was a girl and she recognized all the typical signs of a crush, but she wanted to kick herself every time her thoughts would wander to that smile after a test or during study hall. He was her teammate, her best friend, her rival in football. Were girls supposed to like their best friend? She wasn't sure and whenever she began to wonder about it, she would sigh. No. That was the answer. No.

***

Sometimes she felt like she had a chance with him, like when he sent her a smile or casually threw his arm around her. She turned down most offers from other boys in hopes that he would notice her in a different way. But they were always "just friends" and she knew it would stay like that. Even so, she tried. She tried her best in football, she tried her best at looking pretty as often as possible, she tried her best to be discreet. Maybe she was too discreet because he never noticed. Either that or he was just being a typical guy. That would be what her mom said and more than half the time she would have to agree. She just wished Yamato wasn't a typical guy. She had no chance.

***

When she found out that Eyeshield 21, the running back of the Deimon Devil Bats, was a girl, she was shocked. She'd been pretty sure that she was the only girl football player in Japan, but apparently not. The creepiest part, though, was that Sena's personality almost mirrored her. Yamato had been absolutely ecstatic to face her off one-on-one. He said he'd finally have a challenge. She'd laughed at him when he first said it, because in her mind _no one _could catch up with him. He was too fast, too out of reach, too everything. There was no way he'd ever have competition, in anything. He loved speed too much to ever let anyone lay a hand on him, or grasp his attention. Yamato was made of speed, and no one could compare. He was untouchable. For her, and anyone else. But Sena caught him.

***

But she chased after him. She would do anything not to have his eyes skip over her and move onto the small Devil Bats running back. She just couldn't do it. Even so, she tried. Subtly, but she tried. They were friends though, just friends, and she couldn't seem to change it. From his point of view, it was obvious that she was just another person he hung out with. Just another friend in the crowd. She'd never felt afraid to ask out a boy before. No boy (the few she ever dated) had ever said no to her. She was a likeable girl, and she knew it. She just couldn't ask him out. She tried, but just as always, he was fast enough to just slip past her. Sometimes though, she wasn't sure if he sped up, or she slowed down. One thing did she did know though, was that there was a finish line. Just neither of them could reach it. Not yet.

***

Karin was pretty, beautiful even, and she made sure that people realized that. Sena, on the other hand, was plain. Yes, Yamato was completely captivated by her, but Eyeshield was nothing special. Up close, she realized that. Normal skin, shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes. She was so small and tiny, no real figure. The first time she ever saw her, she was wearing a blue shirt and jeans. Her hair was up in a ponytail. She was hugging a book. It was impossible to be more normal than she was.

***

When Yamato had to go to America for the Youth Cup, she went with the team, even if she wasn't playing. It was for support, she said, and so she see New York with her friends. She'd thought it would just be her and Yamato and maybe Taka. What she hadn't anticipated on was her best friend talking to someone else for almost the entire plane ride. She didn't blame Sena, honestly, but she felt a little bit wounded every time Yamato would flash that smile at her. That smile was meant for _her_, not some new girl. He'd never showed an interest in dating anyway, saying it would get in the way of football. But here he was, talking to a plain girl with a shyer demeanor than hers like she was the best thing in the word.

***

Karin had never been on the outside of something before. She'd never been the third party spectator. In football, she was first sting, in school she was popular, with her best friend she was always right there next to him. They were with each other every step of the way. But now that Yamato was flirting with the new girl. It was like there was this inside joke and she was just being told 'oh, you should've been there.' Every time she thought about it, she felt her insides twist a little in an irrational anger. It wasn't either of their faults, and there was nothing to get worked up about. For all she knew, Yamato was just happy to be playing next to the new Eyeshield 21. It was that, she told herself, only that.

***

After Japan won the Youth Cup against America, Karin was the first one down there. She was ready to just go and throw herself at her friend. Instead, she stopped short. Someone else had already done it. Sena laughing, feet barely skipping the ground because her hands were wrapped around his next. Everyone was attacking them, and it was just a pile of football players, laughing, smiling, hugging, crying, ruffling each other's hair. And she felt a pang, because she couldn't be in there. She wasn't even a bench warmer. For the first time in her life, she was a spectator. And Yamato was holding up another girl instead. If she was anyone else, she would've run away, maybe even crying. But no, she took a deep breath and waiting for them to calm down, to stop attacking each other, stop attacking Eyeshield. She'd made the last touchdown against Panther, so it made sense, she told herself. What she conveniently left out to herself was no one else was holding the short running back that tightly. Just her Yamato. Only him.

***

She finally managed to get that moment in three hours later. They were all partying at the hotel (Hiruma afforded somehow paid for it, naturally) when he tapped her on the shoulder. I've been looking for you, he said, and gave that casual hug he always did. She told him congratulations, that the game was amazing and that _he _was amazing. He just gave her that wide smile and messed up the back of his hair with his hand. They were shouting over the music. The mass of people around them was going insane and it was so loud it _hurt_, but everyone was so deliriously happy that it was overwhelming to be in there. Just so many people. Karin was never good with a lot of people, but she managed to get right in there quickly after their short conversation. She just let herself go, like everyone else. He was right behind her. It was felt like how it was supposed to be. She liked that feeling and soon she was laughing along with everyone else.

***

She got off the plane back in Japan before he did, since he was trying so hard to pull down the luggage. It was another ten minutes until she saw Taka emerge, Yamato right behind him. She whistled and waved, getting their attention. Taka was there immediately, but when she looked, Yamato was still back there, hand held out as Sena wrote her cell phone number on the back of it. He told she and Taka that he just asked Eyeshield out and she said yes. Taka rolled his eyes, and for the next week or so just made fun of him for it, said he looked like a second grader when he came back. She agreed, because it was true and he really did look like an eight-year-old that just got his first kiss on the cheek by someone other than his mother. She was happy for him, but she also felt a little bit sad. She thought it would turn back to normal. She thought it would just be the two of them, the team, and football. But for one of the first times in her life, Karin was wrong.

***

Yamato had many different smiles and Karin could recognize all of them. There was his competitive smile, the one he wore before the game. There was the triumphant smile, the one he wore when they one. There was the 'it was still a good game' smile when they lost. There was a small smile he wore when he was lying and trying to hide it. It was his guilty oh-fuck-you-caught-me-red-handed one. There was the smile he had when he was laughing, or just found something funny. There was one he gave to her and a few others that said he was genuinely glad to see them. But there was one she'd never seen before and it was directed completely towards Sena. It was only for her. It was unfair, Karin decided, that someone else got that smile. She should have seen that before anyone else. But she didn't.

***

She lived with it though, and nothing seriously changed about their friendship. Most of it really _was _the same as before; their jokes were still their jokes, their little secrets still their little secrets. And if Sena was around, it was okay. She'd even learned to like the girl a bit. So it wasn't too bad, and they were both really conscious not to make her feel like she was the third wheel. But a while back, before the Christmas Bowl had ever started, Yamato said that Sena would finally give him a challenge. He was wrong though. She was the one with the challenge.

And she lost.

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Yeah, weird, I know. I hope you liked it. Read and review please.


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